- Trade School Secrets
- Posts
- “2026 Goals (Part 2): The 90-Day Playbook and Scoreboard Every School Needs”
“2026 Goals (Part 2): The 90-Day Playbook and Scoreboard Every School Needs”
SPRRY EVERYONE - this didn't publish on Saturday. I can't believe Christmas is around the corner. Are you ready? S
A clear picture of 2025
3–5 non-negotiable 2026 outcomes
A North Star metric
A one-page “year in review” written in advance
Now we turn that into something your team can execute without you nagging them every 5 minutes.
Why you need a scoreboard (not just a Google Doc)
Research on small business owners shows more than 80% don’t keep track of their goals, which is a big reason 77% say they struggle to achieve their vision.synnovatia.com
On the flip side, business owners who regularly track key metrics and progress are about twice as likely to hit their goals.LivePlan
So if you do nothing else different in 2026, do this:
Build a simple scoreboard and look at it every week.
Step 1: Turn annual outcomes into 90-day “bricks”
Yearly goals are the house.
90-day projects are the bricks.
For each 2026 outcome, ask:
“What must be true by the end of Q1 (or the first 90 days) for this to be realistic?”
Example:
Annual goal: “100 WIOA students in 2026 (8/month) from 3 workforce boards.”
90-day brick (Q1):
Get 2 new workforce boards to approve our school or add at least one new program.
Build and document a 3-step follow-up sequence for every workforce referral.
Enroll 25 WIOA students in Q1.
Each 90-day brick should:
Have an owner (one person)
Have a number attached to it
Be realistic with your current team and capacity
Step 2: Use a simple OKR-style format (without going full corporate)
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are popular because they help organizations focus and align around a small set of priorities. When used well, they can significantly boost performance.BCG Global
But newer research also shows OKRs fail when goals are vague, tracking is poor, or they’re layered on top of messy existing systems.ResearchGate
So we’re going to steal the good part of OKRs and leave the rest:
For each 90-day brick, write:
Objective (O): A short, inspiring sentence.
Key Results (KRs): 2–4 specific numbers that define success.
Example – Enrollment:
Objective:
“Fill our tech sales and HVAC programs with motivated students who can actually finish.”Key Results (Q1):
Enroll 15 new students (5/month).
Achieve 70% show-up rate for enrollment calls.
Increase the show-to-close rate to 40%.
Get 8 Google reviews mentioning ‘enrollment was easy’ or ‘clear process’.
Assign an owner to each Objective:
Operations & compliance
Workforce/WIOA relationships
Admissions/enrollment
Student success & placements
Your job as founder: own the North Star, and make sure each Objective has clear owners and numbers.
Step 3: Build your “2026 School Scoreboard”
This is where the magic happens.
You want a one-page view (whiteboard, Notion, Airtable, Google Sheet—doesn’t matter) with:
1. The top of the board: 2026 North Star & Outcomes
North Star metric: ___________
2026 outcomes (3–5 bullets from Part 1)
2. Middle of the board: current 90-day Objectives & KRs
For each Objective:
Objective name
Owner
2–4 KRs with target & actual
Example section:
Objective: Fill Programs with the Right Students (Q1)
Owner: Maria
KR1: 15 new students (Target 15 / Actual 12 so far)
KR2: 70% show-up rate (Target 70% / Actual 61%)
KR3: 40% show-to-close (Target 40% / Actual 33%)
KR4: 8 new reviews (Target 8 / Actual 4)
3. Bottom of the board: weekly actions & blockers
Columns:
“This week’s 3 big moves”
“Blocked / stuck”
“Decisions we owe the team”
Step 4: Establish a weekly 30-minute “Numbers Huddle”
Most founders try to “motivate” the team with speeches.
The best ones do this instead:
Every week, they sit down with the scoreboard and ask:
“What moved? What didn’t? What are we doing about it?”
Here’s a simple agenda for your weekly 30-minute meeting:
Wins (5 minutes)
2–3 quick wins (new board approved you, student success, review, etc.)
Numbers (10 minutes)
Pull up the scoreboard.
For each Objective, ask:
Are we on track, at risk, or off track?
If off track: Is this a people, process, or volume problem?
Blockers & decisions (10 minutes)
What is stuck that requires your decision?
Where do we need more resources, scripts, or authority?
This week’s 3 moves (5 minutes)
End with 3 concrete actions, each with an owner.
That’s it. Don’t turn this into a 90-minute therapy session. Fast, focused, repeatable.
Step 5: Make your goals visible every day
A lot of people keep their goals buried in a drive folder. Then wonder why nothing changes.
One designer wrote about building a giant whiteboard to track goals and bar graphs so they’d be “front and center” all year—and how that visibility alone helped them hit their targets.
Do the same for your school:
Put your 2026 outcomes and Q1 Objectives
On the office wall
In your student success room
In your digital workspace homepage
You want:
“No one in this organization is confused about where we’re going.”
ACTION ITEM – School Owner Homework
For each 2026 outcome, define Q1 (first 90-day) Objectives + Key Results.
Build a simple one-page scoreboard (whiteboard or digital).
Schedule a recurring weekly numbers huddle for all of 2026.
Make the scoreboard visible to your team.
In Part 3, we’ll talk about how to actually install this into your calendar, habits, and day-to-day life so it’s not just a cute system you abandon by February.
Reader Corner (for non-school owners)
You can steal this entire system for personal goals:
Annual outcomes:
“Lose 20 lbs and keep it off”
“Save $8,000”
“Read 12 books”
90-day bricks:
“Lose 6 lbs in Q1.”
“Save $2,000 in Q1.”
“Finish 3 books.”
Scoreboard:
Put a whiteboard or sheet on your fridge.
Track weekly weigh-ins, savings, and pages read.
Weekly huddle:
10 minutes on Sunday night.
Look at your numbers, decide your 3 moves for the week.